Share this article

It is more likely than ever a terror attack will strike Norway and police have responded by instructing its officers to carry weapons throughout the Christmas season, said PST on Tuesday.

The Norwegian Police Security Service (Politiets Sikkerhetstjeneste - PST) state there is between a 60 and 90 percent chance that Norway will be exposed to an Islamist terror attack during the next year.

The news was revealed in a secret dossier that PST has sent to the Norwegian government, Dagbladet reported.

Martin Berntsen, Head of information at PST, confirmed to the Norwegian newspaper that the chance is greater for a terror attack to occur then the chance of it not occurring.

Berntsen said: “It is very difficult to evaluate the terror danger in percentage, and how likely it is that an incident will occur in the future.”

PST's evaluations are based on information that the Secret Service has itself uncovered, information from the Norwegian Intelligence Service (E-tjenesten) and from cooperating secret services abroad.

From Tuesday morning, the Norwegian police will carry weapon. The move is in reaction to the increased terror threat against Norway. The police will carry the weapons for four weeks. It is mainly a service pistol, carried in its holster, Dagbladet reported.

Minister of Justice, Anders Anundsen said to NTB on last week: “I have also been occupied earlier by letting the police evaluate the measures they see necessary from their professional standpoint. One might say that four weeks is quite a short period, but this is because we want a renewed evaluation.”

According to the Ministry of Justice there are 5.000 task force officers in the police force in Norway.